Beginning June 24, 2011 a new Toy Story short film titled ‘Toy Story Hawaiian Vacation’ will play before every screening of Pixar’s upcoming sequel Cars 2. This is the first in a series of Toy Story shorts, the second of which will premiere November 23, 2011 before screenings of Disney’s The Muppets.

Did you know Pixar originally wanted Jim Carrey to voice Buzz Lightyear, but could not afford to pay Carrey’s salary? Or that Billy Crystal was offered the chance to voice Buzz Lightyear, but declined?

Another interesting fact is that Tom Hanks recorded his dialog for Woody during the breaks of Sleepless in Seattle and A League of Their Own and not during the breaks of Philadelphia or Forrest Gump because he didn’t think it was right to do comedic roles in between serious roles.

The nominees for this year’s Academy Awards were announced earlier today and there aren’t any surprises, with “Toy Story 3,” as expected, leading the animated pack.

Pixar’s “Toy Story 3,” “The Illusionist,” and DreamWorks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon” were nominated today for Best Animated Feature. “How to Train Your Dragon” also earned a second nomination for Best Original Score.

Toy Story was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, and Best Original Song for “We Belong Together” by Randy Newman. Disney’s Tangled also nabbed a nomination for Best Original Song for “I See the Light.”

Pixar also nabbed a Best Animated Short nomination for “Day & Night.” The other four animated films nominated alongside Pixar are “The Gruffalo,” “Let’s Pollute,” “The Lost Thing,” and “Madagascar, carnet de voyage.”

Toy Story 3 Director Lee Unkrich and screenwriter Michael Arndt join NPR’s Terry Gross for a 37 minute discussion about the Toy Story trilogy, coming to DVD and Blu-ray Disc November 2.

“Ultimately, we wanted to treat this third film like the completion of a saga, as if we had been telling one grand story of the course of the three films,” Unkrich says. “So what we arrived at was that it was vital to have Andy grown up and be at that transition where the toys were no longer being needed or wanted or loved.”